Each week, Huntsville’s own Grant Nickalls will inspire us, entertain us, make us laugh or perhaps cry, but always he will remind us why Huntsville is the best place on earth to call home.
This week in Our Town, Grant reflects on his experience with the caring staff and volunteers at Hospice Huntsville.
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I agree with Joy Salmon Moon. When cancer killed my wife I found that compassion was often best expressed by being straightforward, by just being with someone or offering hugs, a shoulder to cry on and an open ear. It was the formal, mealy mouthed expressions that jarred. By not using the word ‘die’ those who condole are often trying to make it easier for themselves as much as for the ones who have suffered loss. However well intentioned, using euphemisms for death puts a distance between those who wish to express their care and those who grieve. It sounds like an understatement of the severity of the severance the bereaved are enduring. It sounds like they are not prepared to really be with the griever by sharing the brutality of the reality.
Mr Nickalls, PLEASE PLEASE say “die”. Not “pass on, pass over, pass through, pass gas”. We die. It’s a good old fashioned English word. No other language has the euphemisms we in the English speaking world adopt. Well, they do, but they are all slang, not serious conversation.
Joy Salmon Moon